This is my grandfather's uncle, known in the family as "Big Willie." Big Willie was born in Ireland in 1876. He joined the Royal Marine Artillery in 1893 and served until 1919. He was two-time heavyweight boxing champion of the British Army and Navy and in 1903 he was singled out as the most accurate gunner in the entire British Navy. In 1914, he survived the sinking of HMS Hogue - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hogue_(1900) - and he saw action at the Battle of Jutland aboard HMS Warspite. Willie is easily the most legendary figure in my family and stories about him have been passed on even among distant cousins. I recently received an e-mail from someone in England who found a web page I had made for Willie. Apparently someone who lives on the coast in Southeastern England had found a medal with his name on it while metal-detecting and they decided to get it back to the family. The medal was awarded for first prize in a foil vs. foil (fencing) competition at a Royal Military Tournament. After a few e-mails were exchanged back-and-forth, they declined my offer to pay and sent the medal on to me. There are several amazing aspects to this: - I only just made the page earlier this year. Before that, there wasn't anything publicly available online that would have linked me to Willie or Willie to the medal. - They actually had found the medal last year, but only recently decided it should be returned to the family. If they had done this last year, they wouldn't have found me. - I think there is a strong possibility that Willie lost this medal when his ship was torpedoed in 1914. It seems to be in really good shape for having been underwater for 100 years, but I found out that a company was given a license to salvage the wreck just a few years ago. Perhaps it had been protected somehow and was only disturbed recently. Anyway, I think it's an amazing find. My uncle said he was sure it would have brought my late grandfather to tears to see it. Just wanted to share.